Answers from 8.5-yr-old Lucy

What is your favorite toy?
Stuffies

Who are some favorite friends?
Harley Quinn, Dahlia, Aga, Addy, Saylor.

What's your favorite food?
IKEA.

Favorite treat?
Gummy bears.

What is your favorite book this year?
Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. Also Lumber Janes and The Year I got Polio.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A spy.

Holiday?
My birthday.

What are you most proud of?
Brand new friends.

What do you hope to accomplish while you are 8 and half?
A mini-fridge for the playhouse.

Um - ok. If you could change something in the world, what would you change?
Price of houses.

What's your favorite school thing?
Choice.

What's your least favorite time?
Math.

If you could choose any super power, what would it be?
Able to do gymnastics.

If you could have pet in the world, what would it be?
Could it be a thing instead?

Ok, if you could have anything in the world, what would it be?
Harley's mallet.

And what would you call it?
"You Go Boom."

Where in the world do you want to go?
New York City.

Where do you want to go to college?
BYU.

What do you want to study at college?
Welding. Something like engineering

What kind of car will you drive someday?
Tecla. It hasn't been invented yet but it teams with a computer. Also has a toilet. In the back it has a mini fridge and a whole bunch of cool stuff like a microwave and food packets.

How old do you think you will be when you get married?
20.

How many kids do you think you'll want some day?
1.

Interview with a 7-yr-old Henry

Who is your favorite friend?
Mom and dad.

What's your favorite food?
That's easy, sushi.

Favorite treat?
Ice cream

What's your favorite movie?
Fantastic Mr. Fox.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Engineer (the kind that engineers stuff)

What's your favorite number?
Of course, 7. Obviously.

Holiday?
Christmas!

What are you happiest about?
A wonderful family.

If you could change something in the world, what would you change?
Trump not being president.

What's your favorite school thing?
My teacher, Cara, and discovery.

What's your least favorite time?
Reader's workshop.

If you could choose any super power, what would it be?
To make the world right.

If you could have any pet, what would it be?
A dragon named -um - whachamacallit.

Where in the world do you want to go?
Legoland for a week. The one in California.

Where do you want to go to college?
In New York City.

What do you want to study at college?
About Macey's.

What kind of car will you drive someday?
Tesla.

How old do you think you will be when you get married?
20.

How many kids do you think you'll want some day?
3.

When I got to choose your books

Today, for dress-as-book-character day, you dressed up as Emily from the Amulet series (main character, happens to be a girl) and Rapunzel from Rapunzels Revenge (the graphic novel with the empowered cowgirl twist).

I am realizing that all the feminist books we've had around the house are having an effect on you both. And I'm sad to say that I haven't been able to find the same selection for racial diversity.

When you were little, I went to bookstores and the Library asking "Can you help me find books that feature brown people but aren't about them *being* brown?" As you can imagine, the conversations were pretty weird. But I am constantly looking for narratives that you can really connect to. Books about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, and Obama are important too - but I want you to see that regular kids (just like other characters you love) can be different races. Brown is totally great. Brown is totally normal.

When I started looking, there weren't very many options. A couple of librarians suggested animal books since they avoid the race issue altogether. That was a sad moment for me - realizing that publishing isn't as inclusive as I had always assumed.

I searched again today and I am FINDING A WHOLE BUNCH MORE! Many other families must have been seeking out diverse media because consumer demand seems to be pushing publishers to be more inclusive. I am so grateful!!

I love books and I love how much they can change what you see in the world. I will enjoy the magic of choosing books for you as long as I can.

Some of our favorites are here:

• https://www.pinterest.com/mfivecrows/irresistable-also-racially-diverse/
• https://thebrownbookshelf.com/our-books/
• http://ailanet.org/activities/american-indian-youth-literature-award/
• https://www.leeandlow.com

What Standing Rock could mean to you in 40 years

Standing Rock may not feel personal to you. Maybe it seems unimportant or easy to leave off your radar when so many other issues are on fire right now. But I hope you will try to understand that it could affect you in big ways.

To explain, I’ll tell you just how everyone in the area I live in (along with just about everything in my life) IS DEFINED BY A SIMILAR STAND OFF BY INDIANS THAT HAPPENED 37 years ago. 

In 1980 - Salmon throughout the Columbia River Basin were dying out. The tribes were unfairly blamed and told they could not fish because there weren’t enough fish. Some scientists and local American Indians knew that dams were the reason the fish were dying, even though state and federal agencies denied it.

So under threat of getting arrested or killed, Tribal fishers went fishing anyway. Jeremy’s entire family camped near Rapid River and took part in an armed standoff with state police. MOST OF THE NEWS MEDIA at the time said the Indians were there because they wanted attention and/or money (sound familiar?). That was not at all true but it took a long time for people to understand the Tribes and their relationship with salmon. It took everyone time to understand that a culture really can worship fish.

Jeremy's brother, Jarrod, being cited by Idaho Fish and Game Wardens

Fast forward 37 years, the tribes have fought for river protection constantly on the ground and through the courts. They have created new models of working with government along with new science for fish genetics, hatcheries, and river restoration.

TRUTH: actions by the NW Indian Tribes are the ONLY REASON that we have strong salmon runs today. Likewise, we have healthier water, rivers, and ecosystems because of the efforts of American Indian Tribes.

But in other regions of the US, $ interests have also put water resources at risk (think fracking, draining aquifers, lead contamination, climate change, dangerous drilling, etc).

Water really IS life. The risks are already there or coming. Supporting the Tribes at Standing Rock is a good way to push our government to take water protection seriously so we can protect these resources for ours and coming generations.

Standing Rock is not just about a pipeline. A culture really CAN worship water. And anytime - from now, to forty years from now, to indefinitely - wouldn't it be fantastic to know that Tribal members were working to protect YOUR water. You may not understand it, but that is exactly what they are trying to do.

(Jeremy, please feel free to re-write this with all the details - I am not doing it justice.)

Walk Two Moons

Dear Rose,

I am really happy that we got to spend some time with together last week. It was quite a gift, getting to be with you on THAT WEEKEND. You know? When your life was turned inside out and your mother was recovering in the hospital from something I can hardly think about. I think that someday, you will look back on it as one of the strangest and most tumultuous weekends of your life. And I'll tell you what? You were STILL kind. And lovely. And brave. Even on THAT WEEKEND.

That says a lot about you. It really does. And I hope you are proud because what it tells me is that you are becoming an amazing person.

We went to Powells together and I picked out this book for you because it is one of my all-time favorites. It is about a mixed-race family (one American Indian parent, one white) and though it is written by a Brit, it captures some of the subtleties that bringing those cultures into our family has meant. And I love that aspect of it oh so very much.

It is also about a girl losing her mother. And with your mom just having had her head zipped open, the timing for giving it to you last weekend was, pretty much, HORRI-TERRIBLE (that means so horrible that it has to be combined with terrible).

So I held onto it this week. And read it again. And cried again. And fell in love with it all over again.

Now that your mom has passed through her zip-down and zip-back-up as ferociously as we all hoped she would, I am passing it to you.

I hope it adds another piece onto the lovely, brave, amazing person you are becoming.

Love,
Margaret